Foreign Powers

Plug Adapters and Power Converters.

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15 March 2009

The Theory of Power:

One of the things that confuses and flumixes people when they travel
is the fact that outside of North America countries have a different
philosophy about electrical power.

Here in the US and Canada we use 110 volt AC power for our every day
appliances like lamps and televisions, and only use 220 volt power
for heavy appliances and tools like ovens and clothes driers.

Most
of the rest of the world uses 240 volt power for everything we use
110 volts for. This may seem odd, but there is a good reason.
I'm not going to turn this into a history lesson, nor am I
going to try to teach you electrical theory 101, but I will give you
a little bit of info and you can read more if you feel the urge.

I do want to explain the basic reason the 240 volt mains power
standard is used, though. Simply put: It is cheaper.
You may or may not remember the equation Volts
X Amps = Watts. Simply put, the number of volts (110 or
240) times the amps the appliance draws equals the watts it
consumes.

What that means is that your 1800 watt hair dryer designed for 110
volt power draws around 16 amps. (1800 watts divided by 110
volts equals 16.36 amps) But a hair dryer of the same 1800
watt consumption designed to run on 240 volt power will only draw
7.5 amps. (1800 watts divided by 240 volts equals 7.5 amps)

Fine, you say, but how does that make it cheaper? Simple:
The higher the wattage you need a wire to carry, the bigger
the wire has to be. Wire is usually made of copper or an alloy
of copper. Copper costs money, so if you can make do with
thinner wire (and use less copper) safely, you save money.
You may notice that the power cords on some of the every day
appliances you will see in 240 volt countries look kinda thin.
They are, but they are just as safe as the big cords we are
used to. Wiring doesn't care about voltage, it cares about
amperage.

Take, for example, the wire you would find in the wall socket of
your home in the US. It is likely to be 14 gauge wire and is
rated for a 15 amp circuit. That 1800 watt hair dryer we
talked about earlier is going to be pushing the rating (Don't worry,
there is a bit of safety margin baked into the standards used for
wiring. The power in your house is likely really 120 volts,
not 110 volts, so the equation is changed a bit. And the real
limit for 14 gauge wire is around 20 amps anyway.).

Now, the same wiring using 240 volt mains and the 240 volt, 1800
watt, hair dryer would only be pulling 7.5 amps through the wire.
You could plug in your 1500 watt space heater and warm your
bum while you dry your hair and still not trip the circuit
breaker.

The Plugs and Sockets

Each country seems to have its own take on which type of plug
and socket arrangement is the safest, so there is great
variety in the plugs you will find in different countries. In
Afghanistan, I found that the locals used the European two
prong style. But, on coalition bases you would find
everything form the three pronged Type
B of North America to the modern Type
G of the UK.

Here
is a site that will help you figure out the common socket types for
most every where on the planet. Beware, especially in third
world countries, for regional exceptions to the "standard" plug
types. If a local merchant gets a deal on non-standard sockets
he may have taken it and you'll find that an area is using something
different than the rest of the country.

So, what does this mean?

Well, I have yacked at you for a fair time about the whys and
wherefores. But what you really want to know is: What do
I need to do to make sure I can charge my MP3 Player and use my
Computer in lower Elbonia?

Here is what:

First, check all your electronics for what their voltage
requirements are. If you plug a 110 volt appliance into 240
volt power you will definitely let
the magic smoke out.

Each and every device has a label on it that identifies what
voltages it is designed for. Since most of our electronics
today are made in Asia for the world market, most of them have dual
(110~240 volt) voltage capability.

Here are some pictures of these labels for your reference:

This is the charger to my Palm Tungsten E2. This little
critter gave me fits, because I stupidly assumed it was dual
voltage, and it wasn't. I had to find a voltage converter in
Afghanistan so that I could charge my Palm. Luckily the PX had
100 watt converters for $30. If I had bothered to look at it
before I left the states, I would have gotten a dual voltage charger
or USB
cable
for it and saved having to lug a 5 pound brick around with me
everywhere I went.

I have boxed in yellow the important information. What you
want to see is 110~240 VAC, 120 - 240 Volts or something
similar. YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE THIS:

The next picture is of a charger for my cell phone. It is
really just a power converter to reduce mains voltage to the 5 volts
direct current that USB devices use. Anything you have
that charges from the USB port on your computer, or from one of
these USB
converters
that you plug into the wall (What many of us call wall
warts), will plug into a USB port for charging. It is
standardized, any port that you can plug a USB cable into will give
you 5 volts of direct current which is what it expects and needs.
You do not have to bring a separate USB wall wart for each
device you have. I would bring two, a primary and a backup in
case you break or lose one.

Note that I have again blocked the relevant information and
underlined what you are looking for. THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD
LOOK:

Here is the data plate on my laptop's power supply. Laptop
power supplies are made to accept different power cords depending on
where they are sold. We are used to seeing the North American
version, but the ones for
other places are what you will see abroad.

Almost every one is dual voltage. Check to be sure. Here
is what you are looking for:

OK, so how do I plug the thing into the wall?

Second, get a plug adaptor. I am a cheapskate. I also
like to travel light. So I will encourage you to buy one plug
converter to handle all possibilities. There are many
different styles of plug converters out there, and many come
in
pieces. DO NOT BUY THESE. The reason I say that is
I know I lose stuff all the time. I lose stuff at home and I
lose stuff when I travel. The more pieces there are, the more
likely I am going to lose a piece. Also, I said I like to
travel light, a bag of loose parts is not conducive to keeping my
bag light.

Here is what I
used for a year overseas. I bought mine at Best Buy, but you
can find them in a lot of places. I kept it always attached to
an extension cord with three outlets similar to this
one. This
is another option.

Remember, we are talking about charging and running small electronic
devices, not power tools and other heavy equipment, so making one
outlet into three is not going to overload the circuit. Also
in our favor here is that the extension cord is rated for 15 amps
with 110 volts which means it will handle that rating using 240
volts where the amps will be about half for the same device.

Just remember, if you bring something that requires 110 volts and
needs a power converter it still needs that power converter, even
though you can plug it straight into the extension cord running from
your plug converter.

Be very careful if you have just had the proverbial bulb light
over your head and thought "Hey, I can just use the power
converter I have and plug the extension cord into that!
Then I don't have to worry about this stuff!"

The problem with the power converters is that they are for a certain
number of watts. Everything you plug in has to have a combined
wattage of less than the capacity. The one I linked to just
now is rated for 50 watts. That may be enough, it might not.
Use the Watts = Volts x Amps equation to figure out how many
watts you need. Remember that the more watts a converter can
provide, the heavier it will be. Also, if everything you are
bringing is dual voltage anyway, you are just carrying around
something that is heavy and you don't need.

In Conclusion

So here is what you need to do:

1 - Check your gear and make sure that it is dual voltage (110~240
Volts).
2 - Get a dual voltage power supply for anything that you have which
is 110 volts only. Ebay is
your friend.
3 - Get a one piece Plug Converter, like the Kensington
one.
4 - Get a short multiple socket extension
cord or one
to
three plug adaptor so you can plug more than one thing in at a
time.

After Thought

When I bought a USB
charging
cable for my Palm, I also got myself a battery pack (Similar
to these).
This
allows me to charge any USB charged device (Ipod, MP3 players,
phones, etc.) from four AA batteries as well as extend the running
time of the device. This is great for long trips.

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